Is there a large contingent of people who want to sign up for cryonics but are worried about the strict temperature requirements and so forth? If not, plastination probably won’t catch on much better than cryonics.
With cryonics, if somebody messes up at any point (the cryonics company goes broke, the LN2 production company experiences unexpected problems and any local stores are running low, an employee mishandles your body, etc.) then you are unlikely to be revived. With plastination, there’s a lot less that can go wrong; even if the future caretakers of your brain don’t believe it will work, it is more effort to destroy your brain than to leave it be. They may decide to bury it in a graveyard, but that’s less likely to prevent revival than thawing from cryonics.
In either case, the probability that revival will be technologically and socially possible given it’s physically possible approaches 1 as time approaches infinity, and the probability that something bad and irreversible happens to you given that you aren’t revived also approaches 1 as time approaches infinity. In either case, you’re betting that the former happens before the latter. However, this seems a much better bet with plastination than cryonics because it’s a lot harder for something bad to happen to you.
It may catch a bit better because cryonics is very sci-fi sounding. There are a lot of sci-fi novels and movies using cryonics, and for many, those who believe in cryonics are just those who take sci-fi for reality. Plastination isn’t used in sci-fi, it’s something that most people just never heared about, so they don’t have “it’s just sci-fi” prior belief.
Also, cryonics are very expensive because of the high upkeep required to keep the temperature, so there is good hope that plastination could be made much cheaper, lowering the entrance barrier.
Also, cryonics are very expensive because of the high upkeep required to keep the temperature, so there is good hope that plastination could be made much cheaper, lowering the entrance barrier.
My understanding from reading Darwin and various other materials is that the ongoing maintenance cost of LN2 (one of the cheapest fluids around) storage is pretty low, and the major cost in cryopreservation are the original procedures.
One public image advantage of plastination is that, if you’re doing it on whole bodies, you could (Plausibly) put the plastinated patient on a standard bed (Maybe in a 2001-esque pod for extra effect (No, no need to mention Robert Nelson pulled the same stunt)) and make it look closer to real medicine. Though I’m not sure it’s completely prudent to let a plastinated body out in the open collecting dust for show.
Is there a large contingent of people who want to sign up for cryonics but are worried about the strict temperature requirements and so forth? If not, plastination probably won’t catch on much better than cryonics.
With cryonics, if somebody messes up at any point (the cryonics company goes broke, the LN2 production company experiences unexpected problems and any local stores are running low, an employee mishandles your body, etc.) then you are unlikely to be revived. With plastination, there’s a lot less that can go wrong; even if the future caretakers of your brain don’t believe it will work, it is more effort to destroy your brain than to leave it be. They may decide to bury it in a graveyard, but that’s less likely to prevent revival than thawing from cryonics.
In either case, the probability that revival will be technologically and socially possible given it’s physically possible approaches 1 as time approaches infinity, and the probability that something bad and irreversible happens to you given that you aren’t revived also approaches 1 as time approaches infinity. In either case, you’re betting that the former happens before the latter. However, this seems a much better bet with plastination than cryonics because it’s a lot harder for something bad to happen to you.
It may catch a bit better because cryonics is very sci-fi sounding. There are a lot of sci-fi novels and movies using cryonics, and for many, those who believe in cryonics are just those who take sci-fi for reality. Plastination isn’t used in sci-fi, it’s something that most people just never heared about, so they don’t have “it’s just sci-fi” prior belief.
Also, cryonics are very expensive because of the high upkeep required to keep the temperature, so there is good hope that plastination could be made much cheaper, lowering the entrance barrier.
My understanding from reading Darwin and various other materials is that the ongoing maintenance cost of LN2 (one of the cheapest fluids around) storage is pretty low, and the major cost in cryopreservation are the original procedures.
One public image advantage of plastination is that, if you’re doing it on whole bodies, you could (Plausibly) put the plastinated patient on a standard bed (Maybe in a 2001-esque pod for extra effect (No, no need to mention Robert Nelson pulled the same stunt)) and make it look closer to real medicine. Though I’m not sure it’s completely prudent to let a plastinated body out in the open collecting dust for show.